Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

The Clinton Foundation's finances are so messy that the nation's most influential charity watchdog put it on its "watch list" of problematic nonprofits last month.

The Clinton family's mega-charity took in more than $140 million in grants and pledges in 2013 but spent just $9 million on direct aid.

The group spent the bulk of its windfall on administration, travel, and salaries and bonuses, with the fattest payouts going to family friends.

"It seems like the Clinton Foundation operates as a slush fund for the Clintons," said Bill Allison, a senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a government watchdog group where progressive Democrat and Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout was once an organizing director.

- From last year's post: Senior Fellow at Sunlight Foundation Calls the Clinton Foundation "A Slush Fund"

Thanks to Charles Ortel, it's time to prepare ourselves for some more Clinton Foundation revelations.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

The Wall Street analyst who uncovered financial discrepancies at General Electric before its stock crashed in 2008 claims the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation has a number of irregularities in its tax records and could be violating state laws.

Charles Ortel, a longtime financial adviser, said he has spent the past 15 months digging into the Clinton Foundation's public records, federal and state-level tax filings, and donor disclosures. That includes records from the foundation's many offshoots-including the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Clinton Global Initiative-as well as its foreign subsidiaries.

This week, Ortel is starting to release his findings in the first of a series of up to 40 planned reports on his website. His allegation: "this is a charity fraud."

The Sunday Times of London described Ortel as "one of the finest analysts of financial statements on the planet" in a 2009 story detailing the troubles at AIG.

"Where you or I see pages of numbers, [Ortel] sees a narrative," wrote Sunday Times reporter Tim Rayment. "Sometimes the theme is a company's potential for growth. Sometimes it is the prospect of self-destruction. And at times the story does not make sense, because the figures are hiding a fraud."

Ortel turned his attention to the Clinton Foundation in February 2015. To learn more about the charity, he decided to take it apart and see how it worked.

"I decided, as I did with GE, let's pick one that's complicated," said Ortel. "The Clinton Foundation is complicated, but it's really very small compared to GE."

When Ortel tried to match up the Clinton Foundation's tax filings with the disclosure reports from its major donors, he said he started to find problems.

"I decided it would be fun to cross-check what their donors thought they did when they donated to the Clinton Foundation, and that's when I got really irritated," he said. "There are massive discrepancies between what some of the major donors say they gave to the Clinton Foundation to do, and what the Clinton Foundation said what they got from the donors and what they did with it."

Last year, the Clinton Foundation was forced to issue corrected tax filings for several years to correct donation errors. But Ortel said many of the discrepancies remain.

"I'm against charity fraud. I think people in both parties are against charity fraud, and this is a charity fraud," he said.
A spokesperson for the Clinton Foundation did not comment on the claims.

I covered the Clinton Foundation and all its shadiness repeatedly last year. Here are a few highlights:

Exposed - The Clinton Foundation is Running a $20 Million Private Equity Firm in Colombia

How the Clinton Foundation Paid Sidney Blumenthal $10K per Month as He Gave Horrible Libya Advice to the State Dept.

How Donations to the Clinton Foundation Led to Tens of Billions in Weapons Sales to Autocratic Regimes

What Difference Does it Make? 1,100 Foreign Donors to Clinton Foundation Never Disclosed and Remain Secret

Senior Fellow at Sunlight Foundation Calls the Clinton Foundation "A Slush Fund"

More Clinton Foundation Cronyism - The Deal to Sell Uranium Interests to Russia While Hillary was Secretary of State

More Hillary Cronyism Revealed - How Cisco Used Clinton Foundation Donations to Cover-up Human Rights Abuse in China

This is How Hillary Does Business - An Oil Company, Human Rights Abuses in Colombia and the Clinton Foundation

Clinton Foundation's Deep Financial Ties to Ukrainian Oligarch Who Pushed for Closer Ties to EU Revealed

Hillary Clinton Exposed Part 2 - Clinton Foundation Took Millions From Countries That Also Fund ISIS

(sott.net)

Early this morning, Israeli Channel 10 news published a leaked diplomatic cable which had been sent to all Israeli ambassadors throughout the world concerning the chaotic events that unfolded over the weekend in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which began with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's unexpected resignation after he was summoned to Riyadh by his Saudi-backers, and led to the Saudis announcing that Lebanon had "declared war" against the kingdom.


The classified embassy cable, written in Hebrew, constitutes the first formal evidence proving that the Saudis and Israelis are deliberately coordinating to escalate the situation in the Middle East.

The explosive classified Israeli cable reveals the following:

• On Sunday, just after Lebanese PM Hariri's shocking resignation, Israel sent a cable to all of its embassies with the request that its diplomats do everything possible to ramp up diplomatic pressure against Hezbollah and Iran.
• The cable urged support for Saudi Arabia's war against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
• The cable stressed that Iran was engaged in "regional subversion".
• Israeli diplomats were urged to appeal to the "highest officials" within their host countries to attempt to expel Hezbollah from Lebanese government and politics.

As is already well-known, the Saudi and Israeli common cause against perceived Iranian influence and expansion in places like Syria, Lebanon and Iraq of late has led the historic bitter enemies down a pragmatic path of unspoken cooperation as both seem to have placed the break up of the so-called "Shia crescent" as their primary policy goal in the region. For Israel, Hezbollah has long been its greatest foe, which Israeli leaders see as an extension of Iran's territorial presence right up against the Jewish state's northern border.

The Israeli reporter who obtained the document is Barak Ravid, senior diplomatic correspondent for Channel 10 News. Ravid announced the following through Twitter yesterday:

• I published on channel 10 a cable sent to Israeli diplomats asking to lobby for Saudis/Harir and against Hezbollah. The cable sent from the MFA in Jerusalem [Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to all Israeli embassies toes the Saudi line regarding the Hariri resignation.
• The Israeli diplomats were instructed to demarch their host governments over the domestic political situation in Lebanon - a very rare move.
• The cable said: "You need to stress that the Hariri resignation shows how dangerous Iran and Hezbollah are for Lebanon's security."
• "Hariri's resignation proves wrong the argument that Hezbollah participation in the government stabilizes Lebanon," the cable added.
• The cable instructed Israeli diplomats to support Saudi Arabia over its war with the Houthis in Yemen. The cable also stressed: "The missile launch by the Houthis towards Riyadh calls for applying more pressure on Iran & Hezbollah."

Watch today's Hebrew broadcast Channel 10 News report which features the Israeli diplomatic cable - the text of which is featured in Channel 10's screenshot (below) - here.

Below is a rough translation of the classified Israeli embassy cable using Google Translate as released by Israel's Channel 10 News:

"To the Director-General: you are requested to urgently contact the Foreign Ministry and other relevant government officials [of your host country] and emphasize that the resignation of Al-Hariri and his comments on the reasons that led him to resign illustrate once again the destructive nature of Iran and Hezbollah and their danger to the stability of Lebanon and the countries of the region.

Al-Hariri's resignation proves that the international argument that Hezbollah's inclusion in the government is a recipe for stability is basically wrong. This artificial unity creates paralysis and the inability of local sovereign powers to make decisions that serve their national interest. It effectively turns them into hostages under physical threat and are forced to promote the interests of a foreign power - Iran - even if this may endanger the security of their country.

The events in Lebanon and the launching of a ballistic missile by the signatories to the Riyadh agreement require increased pressure on Iran and Hezbollah on a range of issues from the production of ballistic missiles to regional subversion."

Thus, as things increasingly heat up in the Middle East, it appears the anti-Iran and anti-Shia alliance of convenience between the Saudis and Israelis appears to have placed Lebanon in the cross hairs of yet another looming Israeli-Hezbollah war. And the war in Yemen will also continue to escalate - perhaps now with increasingly overt Israeli political support. According to Channel 10's commentary (translation), "In the cable, Israeli ambassadors were also asked to convey an unusual message of support for Saudi Arabia in light of the war in which it is involved in Yemen against the Iranian-backed rebels."

All of this this comes, perhaps not coincidentally, at the very moment ISIS is on the verge of complete annihilation (partly at the hands of Hezbollah), and as both Israel and Saudi Arabia have of late increasingly declared "red lines" concerning perceived Iranian influence across the region as well as broad Hezbollah acceptance and popularity within Lebanon.

What has both Israel and the Saudis worried is the fact that the Syrian war has strengthened Hezbollah, not weakened it. And now we have smoking gun internal evidence that Israel is quietly formalizing its unusual alliance with Saudi Arabia and its power-hungry and hawkish crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It's been a more-than-usual eventful week in the Middle East. Russian-backed forces made yet more significant military gains in defeating US-sponsored proxies in Syria, with a fearsome display of long-range Russian air and naval firepower against militant hold-outs near Deir ez-Zor. That was while Russian President Vladimir Putin was greeted in the Iranian capital Tehran by Ayatollah Khamenei - a meeting that spoke volumes of the new reality of geopolitical authority in the region.

Then days later, the Saudi-backed Lebanese premier Saad Hariri makes a "surprise" resignation, which wasn't really a surprise for those who are watching events closely. Hariri made his blustering speech while in the Saudi capital Riyadh, accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of "destabilizing" his country, and even plotting to assassinate him.

Iran denounced Hariri's antics as "grandstanding" and kowtowing to a political agenda set by Washington and its regional allies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, aimed at smearing Iran and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's President Michel Aoun, who has fairly good relations with Iran and Hezbollah, was none too pleased either by his prime minister's farewell announcement televised in the Saudi capital. Aoun reportedly said, rather drily, that he expected Hariri to return to Lebanon soon to explain his resignation while sojourning in a foreign country. The Lebanese president had also rejected claims of Iranian interference in the internal affairs of his country.

Meanwhile, at the same time as those shenanigans, the Saudi rulerslaunched a putsch against rivals within the kingdom under the cover of an "anti-corruption crackdown". Dozens of Saudi princes, as well as current and former government ministers, were arrested or sacked in a move which further consolidates the power under King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Western media reports tended to gullibly portray the move at face value, suggesting a cleanup against corruption. Whereas, the reality is that the Saudi regime is concentrating its autocratic power by getting rid of perceived internal rivals. That move will only make the House of Saud even more insecure and precarious in its grip on absolute power.

What this all spells is the kind of scampering by scoundrels and enemies who know the end is nigh. A bit like shuffling the deckchairs as the Titanic is about to go down. It's a desperate, but futile, bid to avoid the inevitable.

One inevitable reality is that Syria has been salvaged from the US-led axis and its criminal project to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The six-year covert war for regime change has been defeated, largely because of the principled intervention by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in support of the Syrian state.

When Putin visited Tehran last week it was obvious from the interaction with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Russia-Iran are the new dominant force in the Middle East. The US-led axis and its agenda of asserting control through sectarian conflict and chaos is decidedly on the wane. Syria represents a momentous defeat to the US-led axis, and by contrast a monumental vindication of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in stabilizing the strategically important region.

Outgoing Lebanese premier Saad Hariri is obviously making a desperate throw of the dice at the Last Chance Saloon. But it's not his initiative. The pathetic Hariri - who has both Saudi and Lebanese nationality - is following orders from his political handlers in the US axis. By fingering Iran and Hezbollah for allegedly sowing discord, and accusing them of an assassination plot, Hariri is recklessly trying to throw his country back to the fate of potential civil war.

Forty-seven-year-old Saad Hariri, a billionaire businessman whose father Rafic was killed in a car bomb in 2005, is fanning sectarian tensions within Lebanon. His Saudi-funded Future Movement has routinely blamed Hezbollah for his father's killing 12 years ago. It's not clear who actually killed Rafic Hariri. Hezbollah has always denied any involvement. The shocking murder of Rafic Hariri could well have been a false-flag event carried out by the CIA and Mossad to smear Hezbollah, incite regional sectarianism and demonize Iran.

Saad Hariri's dramatic - not to say contrived - resignation as Lebanese premier at the weekend seems to be an attempt at rekindling sectarian passions in Lebanon and is part of a wider gambit to shift the US-led agenda of destabilization in the region.

Having seen its nefarious scheme in Syria come apart, Washington and its regional clients are bidding to move to another theater.

The Trump administration's disavowal last month of the international nuclear accord with Iran and Washington's slapping of new bilateral sanctions on the flimsy basis of alleged Iranian terror sponsorship are all consistent with an attempt to open up a new theater of conflict.

Trump is also moving to impose new sanctions on Hezbollah on the basis of alleged terror plots against the US. Given that Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's coalition government, Washington's sanctions will fuel social and political tensions within Lebanon.

Once again the small Mediterranean country is being exposed to the dangers of civil war in order to satisfy US, Saudi and Israeli geopolitical ambitions. The scars of Lebanon's past civil war (1975-90) between religious factions are still raw. Hariri, and his US and Saudi handlers, are deliberately gouging at those wounds.

This is all because the same US-led axis cannot abide the fact that it has suffered an historic defeat in Syria at the hands of the Syrian Arab Army, with the support of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

However, the attempt to shift the conflict elsewhere is not as smart a move as its orchestrators may think. For a start, the region and the world have become much better informed about the nefarious sectarian and terror-sponsoring agenda of Washington and its allies. Clients like Saad Hariri are seen for what they really are. Self-serving puppets who have not an iota of genuine concern for the well-being of their nations.

Not only has Washington become exposed as the fount of conflict in the Middle East, its client regimes have also become nakedly exposed. That would explain why the House of Saud is hastily trying to barricade itself against potential dissent from within. Their days are numbered, and they know it.

Danger is always present, of course. But Russia is entitled nevertheless to take pride of place in being acclaimed for restoring stability and peace across the Middle East.